Man who stole from Treasury warehouse gets five years

TRENTON — A former supervisor at the state Department of Treasury’s First Avenue warehouse in Hamilton was sentenced to prison Friday for stealing surplus equipment from the warehouse.

Attorney General Jeffrey S. Chiesa announced that David Winkler, 51, of Bordentown, was sentenced to five years in state prison by Superior Court Judge Robert C. Billmeier in Trenton. Winkler was found guilty by a Mercer County jury on Jan. 23 of conspiracy (2nd degree), official misconduct (2nd degree), theft by unlawful taking (3rd degree), and misapplication of entrusted property and property of government (3rd degree).

Winkler ran a scheme in which he and other employees illicitly sold $24,292 in scrap metal and divided the proceeds between July 2005 and April 2007. Judge Billmeier ordered him to forfeit $6,073, representing his share of the stolen scrap metal, and pay a $5,000 fine, Winkler, who was suspended after his arrest in April 2008, forfeited his job as a result of the conviction and is permanently barred from public employment.

“This man was the most culpable of the defendants charged in this case, because he was the warehouse supervisor and directed the others in the criminal scheme,” said Attorney General Chiesa. “This prison sentence sends a strong message that public officials who abuse their positions of trust for personal gain are criminals who will be punished just like other criminals.”

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Three other former warehouse employees previously pleaded guilty in the scrap metal scheme. They are James Mate, 52, of Yardville, Dominick Mangine, 49, of Jackson, and William Gawroski III, 37, of Hamilton. A fifth employee, Thomas Sundstrom, 70, of Southampton, pleaded guilty to misappropriating state computer equipment.

The charges resulted from an investigation by the New Jersey State Police that commenced when Treasury officials obtained information that Gawroski was taking illegal payments from a recycling company in return for helping the company to secure more valuable equipment in auctions of surplus state computer equipment. The probe quickly expanded to include evidence that employees at the warehouse were taking home state-owned computers and that Winkler and other employees were taking surplus metal equipment to a non-approved recycler, selling it for cash as scrap metal, and splitting the money. The surplus metal items sold as scrap included desks, filing cabinets and other furniture and equipment.

Scrap metal from the warehouse is supposed to go to one recycling company that has a contract with the state to buy it. The company credits the state for each load and pays Treasury by check. Gawroski, Mangine and Mate admitted they participated in a scheme with Winkler in which they took the scrap metal to another recycling company in Trenton, which paid up to several hundred dollars in cash per load that was divided among the men. The testimony and evidence showed that Winkler, as supervisor, was in charge of this scheme and gave orders to the others.